Engine Terminal

EB-14 drifts into the siding at Big Chimney, WV.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

CWE 1

This past January, I stopped over at Matt Snell's house to drop off some parts for the bicentennial unit he was building for the railroad (http://cwerailroad.blogspot.com/2015/02/bicentennial-unit.html). He showed me a business car that he was working on and asked if the CWE could use one. After thinking about the offer for about a nano second, I said sure. I told him that a business car was another one of those projects that I had thought about from time to time and had planned to do one day, but there were so many other pressing projects that it may never happen if it was left to me to do it.

It was another month or so before I heard from Matt again about the business car. He asked if I had thought about a paint scheme for it. After some back and forth on possible schemes and my initial ill conceived idea of something in Pullman Green and UP Armor Yellow, I decided on the same basic color that NS uses today for its executive train.

Fast forward to this past April. Matt brought CWE 1 to the GLA operating session on Jim Rollwage's Denver Pacific. The photo below shows the car heading east through Henderson, CO to be delivered to the CWE. Matt developed the paint scheme, detailed the car, and then painted and lettered it before releasing it the railroad.

During an op session in May, we catch CWE 1 on the back end of MTNM-6 as it heads east through Summit Springs.

Later in the summer, the car was captured at Hollister Yard in North Pirece, WV. The shot below shows all of the detail on the roof and the observation platform of the car.What you can't see in any of these shots is the incredible interior detail that Matt added.

And in the last shot below, we catch CWE 1 as it heads west out of North Pierce.

This car is absolutely beautiful in every respect and is another testament to Matt Snell's creativity, craftmanship and generosity. Thanks again, Matt.